Alternative Art
Mix Fix
The Ninth Art
by Giovanni Stanislao
Every year at the end of October, my friends and I hop on a train from the south of Italy head-
ed to Lucca, a beautiful medieval city in Tuscany. There, we rent an apartment too small for our group, we buy junk food, we prepare to not sleep at all and we spend five intense days in the nerd paradise: the biggest comic book convention in Europe. We never skipped an edition of the festival since we started to attend 12 years ago, it’s a tradition and a really important moment for us during the year. People wait for Christmas, we wait for Lucca Comics.
What happens in these events, without even
romanticizing too much, is magical. Thousands of people with the same passion and interests gather in the same place to meet their idols, maybe a writer of a fantasy book they love, an artist from Marvel Comics who draws their favorite character, or an actor from a TV Series; they gather to “cosplay”, dressing up as their favorite characters from anime or movies; they gather to buy and read the newest publications presented during the festival by the authors; they share this moment as part of a community, with enthusiasm and energy.
they are not a form of art with the same dignity as the others.
From escape to art
USA,
between the nineteenth and twentieth century a new form of visual communication was born. In the beginning, comic books were a way to escape reality, giving the readers the tool to run away from their problems, from the daily life. It’s in this moment that Superman, Batman or Captain America were created. In their series these characters would deal with
Probably this sense of being part of something
is why every comic book lover will get angry when people dare to say that comics (or bande dessinè or manga or whatever you want to call them) are only for kids, when they dare to say
Captain America
Superman by Andy Warhol
33
